In New Orleans, where musical and cultural traditions go way back, 10 years is a mere drop in time's bucket. Even so, it took the Essence Music Festival just one decade to become the defining summer event within New Orleans' seasonal cycle. Then Hurricane Katrina hit, turning Essence's twin sites the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center into scenes of horror and tragedy.

Former Presidents Bush and Clinton helped Tulane University celebrate its "miracle" commencement Saturday, nine months after Hurricane Katrina put two-thirds of campus under water and scattered students to more than 600 schools nationwide.

Embattled former FEMA director Michael Brown says he was initially unaware of desperate conditions at the New Orleans Convention Center because it was not a planned Hurricane Katrina evacuation site, according to a congressional memo.

Bipartisan critics say Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has botched the Hurricane Katrina relief operation. Now, his qualifications for the position are also coming under fire. Some, however, say Louisiana's government did not follow FEMA's plan.

After angry complaints last week about delays in mobilizing federal help for Hurricane Katrina victims, criticism of Bush's light-hearted recollection Friday of his youthful partying in New Orleans and failed efforts to blame local and state officials for problems, the president and his aides regrouped Monday.

USA TODAY's Robert Davis trained as a paramedic, spent two days with New Orleans paramedics as they made and carried out plans to treat and evacuate the 20,000 people stranded at the New Orleans Convention Center, giving him exclusive access to the rescue operation.

USA TODAY's Robert Davis spent 48 hours among those left behind in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. By the end, the former paramedic had seen the harshest realities of survival and death.